Combined bed tray and night stand



Sept. 18, 1962 P. a. SARKUS COMBINED BED TRAY AND NIGHT STAND Filed Jan. 26, 1960 INVENTOR. Philip G. Sarkus BY m his ATTORNEY 3,@54,1ZZ Patented Sept. 18, 1962 3,054,122 COMBINED BED TRAY AND NIGHT STAND Philip G. Sarkus, Donora, Pa., assignor of one-half to Noreen T. Sarkus, Donora, Pa. Filed Jan. 26, 1960, Ser. No. 4,727 1 Claim. (Cl. 332) This invention relates to an accessory or attachment for a bed which serves as a bed tray or night stand. This is an improvement over my prior Patent No. 2,612,422, dated September 30, 1952. The bed tray attachment shown in my prior patent is foldable in a manner so as to be stored at the rear of the headboard. In many instances, it is desirable to provide a bed tray which may be moved longitudinally of the bed to different positions to allow a wider variety of longitudinal adjustment, such as in cases where it is desired to either eat from the tray or read a book supported thereon while seated transversely on the central portion of the bed.

An object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a combined bed tray and night stand attachment or accessory which is longitudinally adjustable with respect to a bed and which may be pivotally moved for storage either behind the headboard or underneath the bed.

A further object of my invention is to provide a readily detachable bed tray and night stand accessory, made of relatively simple and inexpensive parts which are foldable and adjustable in many directions to allow placement of the bed tray or night stand in practically any position overlying the bed.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from a study of the following description taken with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a combined bed tray night stand attachment, shown in full lines, and mounted on the side of a bed, shown in dot and dash outline;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary View, partly in longitudinal cross section, of the vertical column or support shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side, elevational view of the bed tray and supporting element;

FIG. 4 is an end view of the tray shown in FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a transverse, cross-sectional view of the carriage portion shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

Referring more particularly to FIG. 1 of the drawing, numeral 1 denotes a headboard, numeral 2 denotes a side board, and numeral 3 denotes a side rail of a bed, all of which are shown in dot and dash outline since they form no part of the present invention.

The bed attachment or accessory embodying the present invention comprises a pair of clamps 4 which are adapted to be clamped to longitudinally spaced portions of the side rail by turning of the wing nut 5, the end of which engages the side rail. Clamps 4 have upturned hanger portions 6 for supporting the end portions of a tubular guide rail 7 of rectangular cross section.

Mounted for sliding or rolling movement on the guide rail 7 is a carriage 8 of substantially U-shaped cross section having a pair of rollers 14 pivotally mounted thereon which roll on the top surface of the side rail 3. On an offset flange portion of carriage 8 there is screw-threadedly connected a wing nut 15 having, at one end thereof, a clamping element 16 of substantially semi-circular cross section which snugly fits a correspondingly shaped portion of tube 9, the bottom end of which tube is pivotally connected, at 91), to carriage 8, as shown more clearly in FIG. 2. Thus by turning the wing nut 15 clockwise, clamp element 16 is moved toward tube 9 so as to clamp and hold it in the vertical position shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, and upon unscrewing thereof, clamp element 16 is withdrawn therefrom so as to allow pivotal movement of tube 9 to the horizontal position and in either direction, as shown in dot and dash outline in FIG. 1.

The vertical height of the post or tube 9 is selectively adjustable by providing a telescoping tube 10 having mounted therein a leaf spring which is bowed outwardly from a hole thereof and which has a pin 10b welded thereto which is selectively insertable in any one of the plurality of holes 9a in tube 9 merely by depressing pin 10b and lifting or lowering tube 10.

A horizontally extending guide element 11 is pivotally mounted on top of tube 10 and may be clamped in any desired horizontal angular position, throughout an arc of 360, by tightening of a cap screw 10a, as shown more clearly in FIG. 2.

A bed tray 12 is preferably provided with two channels 13 and 13a integrally secured to the bottom thereof so that either channel may be telescoped with element 11 and thus adjusted in a transverse direction of the bed. If desired, an adjustment such as 9a, 10, may be provided for adjusting the overall length of parts 13:: and 11.

If desired, carriage 8 could ride directly on siderail 3 or may be made similar to clamp 4 and selectively clamped anywhere on siderail 3, thus eliminating rail 7, rollers 14 and clamps 4. Of course, one of the channels may be omitted, if desired, but it is preferred to have two to provide proper balance in case the tray is laid on other horizontal surfaces. A wing nut, similar to 5, may be used to lock carriage 8 to the guide rail 7, if desired. Furthermore, 12 may be a flat board instead of a tray to serve as a table, if desired.

In operation, therefore, it will be seen that carriage 8 may be rolled along rail 7 to any desired longitudinal position of the bed. Thereafter, tube- 9 is pivotally turned to the vertical position and clamped there by wing nut 15. Any desired height of the tube may be obtained by pushing in pin 10b and lifting tube 10. Also, the tray may he slid transversely of the bed, that is, by tele scoping movement of channel 13 and element 11, and the tray may be pivotally moved in a horizontal plane about post 10 as a center so as to extend longitudinally of instead of transversely of the bed, therefore out of the way of the occupant. When the tray 12 is no longer needed, the assembly may be pivotally moved to a position denoted as 12, that is, behind the headboard of the bed, or, if desired it may be pivotally moved to a position denoted as 9" and 10", shown in dot and dash outline, whereupon the assembly including the tray may be stored under the bed.

Thus it will be seen that I have provided an efiicient combined bed tray and night stand which has a wide variety of adjustments so as to enable it to be positioned over any portion of a :bed and which may be. folded and collapsed in a manner so as to be selectively stored either behind the headboard or underneath the bed and thus concealed from view; furthermore, I have provided an attachment or accessory for a bed which can be detachably mounted on any type of bed, such as those used in hospitals or homes, and which can be easily and detachably secured thereto without the necessity of providing screws holes or the like, or otherwise marring the appearance of the bed.

While I have illustrated and described a single embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that this is by way of illustration only, and that various changes and modifications may be made within the contemplation of my invention and within the scope of the following claim.

I claim: An accessory for supporting a tray, or the like, on a bed, comprising a pair of clamps detachably secured in longitudinally spaced relationship on a side rail of the bed, a guide rail having end portions detachably supported by said clamps so as to extend outside of, and parallel to, said guide rail, a carriage element having rollers which roll on said guide rail, a post having one end pivotally mounted on said carriage element so as to be movable from a position at right angles thereto to one in contiguous parallel relationship thereto, said post comprising two telescoping tubes, one of said tubes containing a plurality of longitudinally spaced holes, and the other tube containing a spring-pressed pin selectively insertable in any of said holes to enable adjustment of the length of said post, a support element extending substantially at right angles to the top end of said post and pivotally mounted on the top end thereof, and a tray adjustably mounted on said support element so as to be selectively movable to a position overlying said bed, said post being pivotally movable either forwardly or rearwardly from a vertical position to a horizontal position closely adjacent said rail and underneath the bed to enable selective storing of the tray either under the :bed or behind the headboard thereof, said tray including means thereunder to provide selective adjustment of the tray transversely of the bed.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,238,545 Rittenhouse et a1 Aug. 28, 1917 1,248,842 Saver Dec. 4, 1917 1,862,237 Pepler June 7, 1932 2,466,482 Russell Apr. 5, 1949 2,708,265 Wolfe Mar. 1, '1955 2,709,818 Freese June 7, 1955 

